Steven Seagal's Chechnya Congressional trip fails at last minute

Steven Seagal is closer with Chechnya than many people might have expected. The actor reportedly tried to negotiate a congressional trip to Russia to help the investigation of April's Boston Marathon bombing.

The trip was officially called CODEL, and would have brought members of Congress including Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), Steve King (R-Iowa), Paul Cook (R-Calif.) and Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) to Russia. According to Politico, the lawmakers pulled out at the last minute over concerns about traveling to Chechnya.

"The CODEL's visit to Chechnya was facilitated by Steven Seagal. He has an established friendship with Putin and others in the Russian government and assisted in accommodating the CODEL's request to visit the region," a spokeswoman for Rohrabacher tells the site.

Seagal has spent a good deal of time in Russia recently. He has assisted Russian President Vladmir Putin's government in creating a fitness campaign, and also was photographed with Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in Chechen's capital, Grozny.